


No Turning Back

by obsessivemuch



Category: Wizards of Waverly Place
Genre: F/M, Magical Artifacts, Romance, Sibling Incest, Trolls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 21:17:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsessivemuch/pseuds/obsessivemuch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A magical artifact sends Alex and Justin on a journey of self-discovery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Turning Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nerissa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerissa/gifts).



A bag slung over her shoulder, Alex emerged from the corner store and glanced down the walkway with a well-practiced casual look. No one in her line of sight seemed familiar so she took a few jaunty steps away from the store and headed back the way she came. "What are you doing?" a soft voice hissed in her ear, making her stop abruptly as she was jerked into the nearby alley. Justin's familiar hands gripped her upper arms, turning her body physically to face him.

His severe expression did not deter her from maintaining an innocent facade. "Justin, I didn't think you were coming home this weekend."

"It was a last minute decision," he said gruffly. "I didn't tell Mom or Dad either."

Aware of his hands on her bare skin, she shifted under his gaze and looked at his face. "You know they'll be happy to see you. For someone who goes to school in New Brunswick, they don't think you come home often enough." A strangely tender look in his eyes caused her tone to change immediately, flippancy replacing sincerity. "Not that I agree with it, Justin. You could stay away and I would be perfectly fine with that."

"What were you doing there, Alex?" he asked. While she struggled for the lie that used to come naturally, he dragged his hand upward and grasped the bag firmly, wrenching it away from her in her distraction.

"No, Justin." She reached for the bag, but he held it far away, releasing her arms quickly to dig into the bag. "It's just a present for Mom."

"That was a treasure troll store you were coming out of, Alex. Do you really think they sell trinkets for Mom?" Justin yanked out the beautiful crystal figure and examined it, his hands caressing the sides for flaws. Feeling the invisible weight of his intense stare, Alex shivered as a ghostly sensation of fingers ran up and down her arms.

When he frowned at the figurine, a shadow rolled over her body and chilled her instantly. "There's nothing wrong with it," Alex attempted to say, reaching for the figurine in his hands. The moment her hands brushed the crystal and Justin's fingers, a hurricane appeared out of nowhere and swept them both up. Amidst the swirling winds, she clutched at whatever she can and felt Justin's hand entwine her fingers, squeezing her hand with reassurance. When the winds cleared, the hurricane dumped them sprawling in a pile on an unfamiliar lake shore. "Justin," Alex muttered, struggling under his heavy weight across her legs.

"What did you do, Alex?" Frustration evident in his tone, he disentangled himself from her and offered a hand to help her to her feet.

"I didn't do anything, Justin. You're the one who opened Mom's present!" Extracting the figurine from the sand, she waved it in his direction and watched as his face turned green. "What?"

"I don't feel so hot. Everything is kind of shaky …"

Alex gaped at the figure and dropped it in the sand. "God, there's like a psychic link or something."

"I feel like I landed on a rock," Justin said, rubbing his back. His eyes widened with understanding and he looked back at Alex. "Psychic link?"

She shrugged helplessly, unable to explain the way his ghostly touch had sent shivers down her spine. "I don't know, Justin. Dad's always warned us about troll magic, but he never said anything about treasure trolls."

"I'm pretty sure treasure trolls are included in the vast category of troll magic."

Before she could snipe back, a troll appeared in a puff of smoke. "Intruders!"

Justin moved instinctively in front of Alex. "What do you want?"

"Intruders!" the creature insisted, his face twisting into an ugly grimace. "Why are you here, wizards?"

"We just got dropped here," Alex answered, slipping out from behind Justin while trying to smile at the troll. His eyes narrowed angrily at her and he bared his teeth in response. Without dropping his gaze, Alex crouched down to pick up the figurine. "It has something to do with this thing."

"Treasure! Mine!" he said, starting forward; only a bolt of electricity stopped his forward progress.

Alex didn't know when Justin pulled out his wand, but she felt his hand wrap around hers. The figurine pulsed in her grasp at his touch. "Stay back," Justin warned.

"Mine! Give me now, wizards! You don't belong and I want it for my collection!" He motioned with his hands, but another bolt of electricity nearly scalded the back of his hairy hands.

"We need this to get back to our world." Justin's measured tone of firmness warmed Alex's stomach and the figurine in her hand. "I don't know why your kind sent us here, but I do know that much."

"Not my kind, never my kind! This is my home! Intruders!" He glared balefully at Justin's wand. "I will come back later for treasure! You'll see!"

Alex exhaled softly as the troll disappeared. "What do you think he's talking about, Justin?"

He waited for a long moment before he turned to look at her, his eyes softening as he caught the worry in her expression. "I have no idea, but I don't think I want to wait around to find out. We should keep moving and try to figure out what's going on." When she nodded, he released her hand, leaving her with an odd bereft feeling that she weighs against the wonder that she hadn't noticed that he was still holding her hand after the troll's disappearance. "There are some caves over that way – at least it would be easier to protect ourselves if we only have to worry about danger coming from one way."

Alex followed Justin without questioning his decision, shoving the figurine deep in her jacket pocket. Unsettled by the strange lump in her stomach at his firmness and his strangely tender behavior, she found herself wondering when he changed from the panicky, high-strung older brother, but she recognized that the question was all wrong. Justin's awkwardness had melted with the realization that he finally belonged; finding his place in college and the magical world is a change that Alex knew she can't really fault college for. Hadn't she once sent his duplicate off to college to avoid losing the real Justin? Funny how his duplicate was the one to make her realize he needed to go. Well, the duplicate and the sick feeling in her stomach when he forgot her yet still swore to help her during the wizard duel. Surprise filled Alex suddenly – she never thought about that vacation if she can help it, the terror that Justin might not remember, the instinctive triumph, that momentary wonder of what might have been if he never remembered their relationship. When Justin stopped in front of her, Alex ran into his back. "Sorry," she muttered as he peered at her questioningly.

"You've been awfully quiet," he said, a comment that drew her full attention but she didn't respond. Instead, she glanced around at the brown caves and the small clearing that unaccountably reminded her of another clearing on another day. "I'll start a fire."

As he busied himself with collecting firewood, Alex helped by organizing a ring of rocks. When he bent his head over the artfully arranged branches, she unconsciously rubbed the figure in her pocket. Startled, he jumped back from the ring, staring wildly around at the approaching darkness. She let go of the figure and he relaxed. "Sorry," Alex finally said.

"For what?" he asked, returning to the fire with wand in hand. The sharp line of his back betrayed his wariness, but he kept his attention on the fire

"For everything. Buying something from a treasure troll, being a troublemaker, you know, everything." The outburst, unexpected, took them both by surprise.

"Don't be like that, Alex," he ordered, standing up and facing her with a scowl as the fire roared to life behind him. "You're just being silly. We'll be fine."

"Okay, then, I'm sorry for this," she answered and brought out the figurine. Under his gaze, she slid her palm down the front and watched as he shuddered at her imperceptible touch. "It all comes back to this, Justin. The whole reason we're here."

As he snatched the figure from her hand, something sharp and unexpected passed through the figurine to connect their touch. "What the hell?" he blurted out and she tried not to laugh at his unexpected language (she didn't know Justin knew words like that). She can't let go of the figure though, feeling and not feeling the touch of his hand on hers. "I don't understand. What kind of psychic link connects that way and why would a treasure troll sell it to a wizard?"

"He said it would show me – Mom her heart's desire," Alex admitted softly, concentrating her eyes on the figure and the way his hand tightened on the legs, her own legs squeezing under his iron grip.

"Alex …" The gruffness in his voice made her stare harder, but he raised her chin up and looked at her directly, a liquid expression that she can't name in his eyes. "Why would you buy something like this for Mom? She has everything ... okay, almost everything she could possibly want. I'm pretty sure she would kill to have Max clean out his closet and for Dad to stop being such a cheapskate, but that figure isn't going to show her anything new."

"Because I had to know!" she burst out and looked away from his prying expression. "I've been trying to understand my feelings since the resort."

"What feelings?" Somehow his voice seemed even quieter yet echoed too loudly in her ears. The emotions welling up in Alex ranged from fear to anticipation and she wasn't sure she knew what she wanted to hear from him. It left her with one thing to do. She closed her eyes, put her hand on his shoulder, and pressed her mouth to his. His lips relaxed under her pressure for a moment before his tongue slipped into her mouth hungrily. Opening her eyes briefly at his enthusiastic response, Alex heard him say her name against her mouth. The figure plopped on the ground, forgotten by both of them, as his hands tightened in her hair and she moaned softly at the frissons of desires building in her stomach. The kiss felt like it lasted a lifetime, but it ended too soon. "Are you sure?" he demanded roughly, dragging his mouth away from hers to stare intently at her.

Disappointed, she paused, breaking a word into two syllables. "Why?"

"Because that day … that day that I forgot you were my sister but I knew you were important to me, I thought …" He stopped and shrugged, ducking his head to avoid her gaze. "I thought maybe you were my girlfriend or something and then I was kind of disappointed when it turned out you were my sister. Ever since then I haven't let myself think of you this way even when I felt kind of jealous of Mason. I never liked that guy, never liked the way he touched you, the person you tried to be for him. I just pretended I was trying to be a good big brother."

Alex pinched his arm but kissed him in response because she didn't have the words to tell him that she found it a little sweet. His hands found their way to her hips, but a gruff little cough interrupted the moment.

"I found you!" the troll said triumphantly. "I want my treasure now!"

Justin unwillingly disentangled himself from Alex and reached down to pick up the figurine. He ran his finger down the arm, but Alex felt nothing. "Must be a onetime use," he said, contemplating the figurine. "Were you going to give this to Mom?"

"Of course not. It's magic," Alex replied. "I bought her a scarf."

Turning to the troll, Justin gripped the figurine a little tighter. "Can you send us home?"

His face scrunching up as though thinking pained him, the troll finally nodded. "I won't though."

"What if we make a trade?" Justin offered. "Send us home and you can have this treasure."

He reached out with greedy hands. "Mine!" Almost as soon as Justin handed him the figurine, he snapped his fingers and a hurricane appeared from nowhere. Alex barely had the chance to grab Justin's hand before it swept them up and deposited them in the alleyway outside the Sub Station.

"That was weird," Alex said, letting go of his hand regretfully. Too many people knew them to question their sudden appearance in the alley, but they also knew them too well not to ask questions about Justin and Alex showing open affection for each other. For a moment, Alex almost wished that they hadn't been so … Justin and Alex growing up. When she looked at him from underneath her eyelashes, his expression reflected her feelings. "Justin?"

"We'll figure it out," he said, a promise that warmed her because she trusted Justin to keep his word. There would be no more pretending, no turning back, no spells to undo, just Justin and Alex together against the world like always.


End file.
